Director, Engineering Excellence & Design Standards
Shield AI · Seattle, WA
- Level
- Director+
- Team
- Lean / CI
- Experience asked
- 10+ years
- Industry
- Aerospace & defense
- Posted
- 30+ days ago
The role in 30 seconds
A director-level continuous improvement role at Shield AI (aerospace & defense) in Seattle, WA.
- They ask for
- 10+ years
- Tools it names
- GD&T
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of October 19, 2026
Continuous Improvement roles in the US: typical posted base $105k–$150k.
Median of the low and high ends of 129 live postings that list pay, out of 329 continuous improvement openings in the US, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
Washington plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 328 other live lean / ci postings in the US.
- Base pay
- Not listed in this posting
- Experience asked
- More than usual (10+ vs 5+)
Typical $102k–$145k, from 117 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- Lean 85%
- Six Sigma 55%
- Kaizen 52%
- Value stream mapping 50%
- Root cause 45%
- 5S 33%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
Stands out: this posting asks for GD&T, which few similar roles mention. If you have it, lead with it.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Lean / CI team at Shield AI
Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. Use the team search on this page to find them.
- 2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
- 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- Is CI run from the plant floor or from a corporate OpEx group?
- Which metrics does leadership actually watch: OEE, scrap, cost per unit?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
- 4
Apply with someone vouching for you
If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
This plant: Shield AI in Seattle
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Full description from Shield AIAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
What you'll do
- ◆Establish and own engineering design standards across programs, including XBAT and VBAT
- ◆Define and standardize best practices for aerospace design, analysis workflows, and system-level engineering rigor
- ◆Develop standards for CAD usage, drawing quality, standard notes, release processes, and engineering documentation
- ◆Manufacturing & supply chain handoff including EBOM and MBOM creation along with driving part demand
- ◆Build and mature an engineering excellence framework that scales with the company
- ◆Partner with engineering leadership to align teams on consistent ways of working
- ◆Ensure standards are practical, accessible, and consistently applied across teams
- ◆Influence design decisions and engineering processes across disciplines without becoming a bottleneck
- ◆Support both near-term program execution and long-term scalability of engineering processes
- ◆Drive improvements in configuration management, documentation quality, and design consistency
- ◆Ability to obtain a S//SAR level security clearance desired.
Required qualifications
- ✓10+ years of experience in aerospace or high-performance hardware design environments
- ✓Deep experience working within organizations that maintain strong engineering standards and design rigor
- ✓Broad technical background across multiple engineering domains (mechanical, aerospace, systems, etc.)
- ✓Experience defining or applying design standards, documentation practices, and configuration management systems
- ✓Familiarity with industry standards such as MIL-STD-810, DO-160, and ASME Y14.5 (GD&T)
- ✓Demonstrated ability to influence senior engineers and drive alignment across teams
- ✓Strong track record of improving engineering quality, consistency, and scalability
- ✓Excellent communication skills with the ability to clearly articulate standards and expectations across technical audiences
Show full description ↓Show less ↑
Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
Job Description
Shield AI is building the world’s best AI pilot to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. As we scale both our proven VBAT platform and develop next-generation systems like XBAT, we are investing in how we build—not just what we build.
We are seeking a senior technical leader to define and operationalize engineering design standards across the company. This position is focused on establishing engineering excellence—driving consistency, rigor, and scalability across design, analysis, certification, CAD, documentation, and configuration management.
This is a high-impact individual contributor role with broad scope across multiple engineering disciplines, responsible for raising the bar on engineering quality without slowing down execution.